Actor John Leguizamo failed to persuade a group of undecided, Trump-leaning Latinos to vote for Kamala Harris.
The lack of success came to light last week The Daily Showduring a segment where Leguizamo went undercover as a long-in-the-tooth interviewer.
Seated across from six “Trump-curious” Latinos, the progressive Chef star asked a series of questions while wearing an elaborate disguise.
The questions attempted to determine the reason for the candidate’s “surprising support in the Latino community,” as showrunners put it — as Trump’s popularity with the demographic has been called into question.
At one point, Leguizamo asked if celebrity endorsements could influence their votes, causing the group to shake their heads “no.” When asked what they liked about Trump, one man simply said, “He’s not evasive” — leading to scenes that are hard to forget.
Scroll down for video:
Actor John Leguizamo is seen here in disguise, failing to persuade a group of undecided, Trump-leaning Latinos to vote for Kamala Harris
Sitting across from six ‘Trump-curious’ Latinos, the Chef star asked a series of questions while wearing an elaborate disguise
“It’s pretty clear, I mean this is someone who has been out front and speaking his mind for a long time,” the man behind the “evasive” claim explained.
A female voter at the time commented, “When [Trump] was in government, the economy was better than we have now.
“That’s the only part I like.”
Leguizamo, meanwhile, listened in, wearing a wrinkled, off-color hoodie and a fake beard.
The 64-year-old Colombian-born actor also wore an array of prosthetics as he went on to take a series of photos showing other Latino stars voting for Harris.
Photos of Eva Longoria, Bad Bunny and Pitbull all failed to convince the crowd, almost revealing the man behind the curtain’s identity.
“John Legweeze-me-o?” he asked at one point, purposely mispronouncing his own name to avoid blowing his cover
One of the panlists then offered a correction, but no one else said otherwise, leading to an incredulous voiceover from the frustrated actor, which was taken as a joke.
The questions sought to determine the reason for the candidate’s “surprising support in the Latino community,” as showrunners put it — as Trump’s popularity with the demographic has been called into question
At one point, Leguizamo asked if celebrity endorsements could influence their votes, causing the entire group to shake their heads “no.” Two out of six respond here
“Well, you too, then!” it said.
A series of recordings of Trump rallies and interviews followed, clearly edited to sharpen some of Trump’s more disparaging remarks.
They focused mainly on immigrants and included one in which the former president bluntly said he would “begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.”
When asked what they thought of it, one interviewee said the plan seemed like an “excellent way to solve a very, very serious problem” – while another said: “If he says immigration is a problem, it is like you have a leak in your house; You need to turn off the water supply.”
“Only after you fix it,” the person explained, can you “then turn it on.”
“Maybe that’s what he’s trying to do,” they said. “For example, let’s close the border for a while.”
This paved the way for another joke from Leguizamo, which seemed to fizzle out at this point.
Leguizamo, seen here at the Emmy Awards in September, was born in Colombia
“But who would you call to fix your leak when all the Latinos are gone?” the actor at one point, attempting to inject humor into the segment
“But who would you call to fix your leak when all the Latinos are gone?” he joked.
Several people continue to laugh, including the man who just used the plumbing analogy.
“The mass deportation didn’t seem to deter them,” he said, still serious. “Let’s try something different.”
In another broadcast segment, Trump portrays many of the migrants crossing the US at the southern border as “terrorists” from “mental institutions” that are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
In another, the two-term presidential aspirant proclaimed that the propensity for murder is “in their genes.”
Of these, one voter, apparently still unswayed, admitted: ‘I think perhaps better words could be used. We all make mistakes sometimes.’
A sarcastic Leguizamo joked: “He speaks wrong, from his heart.”
Some, meanwhile, seemed more bothered by the parade of carefully chosen clips, saying, “This is stereotyping Latinos, stereotyping immigrants, and the more you demonize people, it doesn’t bring us together.”
In response, Leguizamo again used humor to address the situation, telling those present, “You, sir, you definitely don’t have the killing gene.”
Some, meanwhile, seemed more bothered by the parade of clips, saying, “This is a stereotyping of Latinos, a stereotyping of immigrants, and the more you demonize people, it doesn’t bring us together.” Another pointed out the apparent agenda behind the clips and questions
“That’s exactly why many who will tell you they don’t like them are because of what he says,” one voter claimed, suggesting there are more important issues at hand.
Leguizamo, meanwhile, used this as a cop-out and ended the segment by saying he was “making some progress” for Harris’ case. He then shed part of his disguise, to the surprise of the panelists — who remained adamant that they still would not vote for Harris.
Another panelist went on to point out the apparent agenda behind the series of excerpts and pointed questions.
He said, “Your questions and the questions I’m listening to are about, ‘When you see this, what do you think?’ “I’d rather not see that,” gesturing to the TV that’s playing the clips.
“So it’s better if we don’t show these clips of him because it makes you not want to vote for him?” Leguizamo responded further.
“That’s exactly why many who will tell you they don’t like them are because of what he says,” the same voter claimed, suggesting there are more important issues at hand.
However, Leguizamo used this as a cop-out and ended the segment by saying he was “making some progress” for Harris’ case.
To the surprise of the panelists, he then took off part of his disguise.
He then asked, “Now that I’ve shown you all these terrible things about Trump, does that change your vote?”
All the panelists responded by shaking their heads again – they were all still determined.
The result didn’t seem to be what showrunners expected, and the segment ended there.